The Environmental 12

RAce Recon - part I

In July, I am taking on race reconnaissance work for a race that I particularly affection, Tortour Ultracycling. Tortour is a 1000-km race around Switzerland. The reconnaissance is meant to ensure the course is fully rideable on race day.

For this reconnaissance, I will be covering about a third of the distance on the bike in two days, commuting by train to the starting points, and from the end points.

Why is that a relevant thing to do for the Environmental 12 you may ask... Well, in past events Tortour would drive cars around the course several times leading to the event. Using bikes and commuting by train alleviate a large part of this emission!

I will cover the course over two separate days, first heading to Bulle by train and coming back to Neuchâtel following the course to Jens on the bike. That's 178km ridden. The second day, I will be commuting to Sion and ride from there to Bulle via Les Diablerets. That's another 177km.

And we are done

This challenge went just as planned, not an issue at all. Well, almost... :))

I guess it started raining on the first day as soon as I got to Bulle and didn't stop for the next 6 hours. By that point, I was by Lake Murten. The worst part of the day terrain was behind me.

The second day, the weather was a lot better until I got to Gstaad. I had to stop there for an hour to wait for thunderstorms to roll though. Thankfully, the timing was perfect and I was due for lunch by the time I arrived in Gstaad. So I just chilled on a terrace and went back to my thing after a good meal!

All in, a solid couple days, saving 131kg of CO2 from being emitted and getting some good all-weather training! See you next month.